


You're Still Young

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Book 3: Fire, Canon Compliant, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Loss of Innocence, Missing Scene, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 18:25:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14982968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “When you left, and said I couldn’t come with you, you told me I’d understand someday…Well, I think I understand now.”“I wanted to keep you safe.”“I know…But it was more than that, wasn’t it? You wanted me to be able to be a kid.”Sokka and Hakoda, at the Western Air Temple.Takes place betweenThe Boiling Rock pt. 2andThe Southern Raiders.





	You're Still Young

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens.

He is woken in the middle of the night by a gust of mountain wind—(how _wimpy_ has his South Pole butt gotten that a _summer breeze_ can disturb his sleep?!)—and, as has become his habit in the past several months, Sokka intuitively counts the bodies snoring in sleeping bags around him to ensure that all of Team Avatar—day-old additions included—is accounted for. And when they’re not, he bursts up, guts dropping inside him.

Dad’s gone. Again.

It’s a momentary panic, though—so momentary that Sokka almost feels stupid for the depth with which it had hit him. Almost. (Though, is it his fault? Maybe, at this point, he’s just so used to Dad being gone that it’s natural that that’s where his head goes the instant he can’t see him…) After his eyes adjust to the darkness, he spots his father sitting a small distance from where the rest of them are camped, at the edge of the Temple, looking out at the cliff.

“Hey,” Sokka says as he approaches his father and sits down beside him, dangling his legs off the edge.

Hakoda looks up at his son, eyes tender and still slightly surprised, as though even after breaking out of prison with him and spending the past day with him besides, he still cannot believe that his son is _here_ , in front of him. “Did I wake you?”

“Nah. I don’t always sleep through the night.”

“Mm.” Hakoda eyes Sokka and nods before he changes the subject. “I had a long conversation with Aang today, while you and Zuko went to find fire wood. I never really had a chance to get to know him after he woke up from the coma. And then during the invasion—well, we were all busy, weren’t we?” He pauses. “He’s a good kid.”

“Yeah. He is.” Sokka sighs. “He’s grown a lot in the past few months, but you should have seen him when we first found him, Dad. He was just a _kid_ …He didn’t even know about the War, and all he was concerned about was penguin sledding.”

“I envy him.”

“Yeah, I think I did too.” He closes his eyes. “I didn’t know it at the time. But once I decided he wasn’t a Fire Nation spy, I yelled at him a bunch. I don’t think it was because I was mad at him or because I was afraid of what he was gonna do, though. I think I was jealous of him, somehow. Even though all I wanted to do was fight.” He stops a moment to think, to try to resolve this apparent contradiction like the clever Idea Guy he is, and when he speaks again, he turns to face his father. “I guess I wanted to fight, but I didn’t want to _have_ to, you know?”

His father lays a hand on his shoulder. “I understand completely.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah, son?”

“When you left, and said I couldn’t come with you, you told me I’d understand someday…Well, I think I understand now.”

“I wanted to keep you safe.”

“I know…But it was more than that, wasn’t it? You wanted me to be able to be a kid.”

Now, Hakoda closes his eyes and sighs. “Some of the others thought I had made a mistake. That it was all-hands-on-deck, and that even at age thirteen you were a competent enough warrior. And you were. But I thought…the War had already taken so much from you. I thought I could spare you from it stealing your childhood too, even if it meant that I’d have to leave you and Katara behind. Maybe that was wrong.”

Sokka shakes his head. “I was only a little older than Aang and Toph are now. Sometimes I forget, when we’re talking about the Comet or the Fire Lord, but then Aang makes an Air Scooter or something and I think about the little kid who just wanted to go penguin sledding.” Another pause. “He’s still just a _kid_. They’re both just kids. And it's _wrong_ that they have to—that _we_ have to...I was just a kid too.”

His father only can only nod. 

“And whatever it was that let Aang go penguin sledding and laugh and not think about the War—childhood or whatever—I don’t think I ever had that. At least not since Mom died.”

“Sokka—”

“But it could have been a lot worse. Zuko—well, I don’t know exactly what happened to him, and maybe one day he’ll tell me—but when Zuko was sent away from his home, he was about the same age I was when you left, and he...well, whatever happened, he had to be a soldier. And he’s been so angry for so long…I guess what I’m trying to say is, I was upset for a long time that you left me behind, but traveling with all these kids, trying to keep them safe, seeing what they’ve had to become these past months, what we’ve all had to become…I get it now. So…thanks, Dad.”

Hakoda opens his mouth to speak—to tell his son he’s sorry, reiterate how proud he is of him, to express how Sokka’s gratitude sounds like forgiveness in his own ears and how much that means to him—but no words come out, and in their place, wet droplets well up in his eyes. He pulls his son to him, holds tight, and hopes the messages, jumbled as they are, all come across.

“I’m glad you’re here, Dad.”

“I am too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please consider leaving a review


End file.
